Of course, it would be wrong to suggest this sort of mayhem began with rock-and-roll. After all, there were riots at the premiere of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. So, what’s the answer? Ban all music? In this reporters opinion, the answer, sadly, is ‘yes’. — Brockman

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Simpsons News & Products

In case you missed it, the Hollywood Reporter did some amazing coverage of the Simpsons milestone of reaching 500 episodes. The cover story of the February 17th, 2012 issue features stories from Matt Greoning, Al Jean, James L. Brooks and the main members of the Simpsons voice cast.

Since its premiere in 1989 after an early incarnation on the then-fledgling Fox network's sketch series The Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons has never been just a "cartoon." Birthed from the antsy mind of creator Matt Groening, the series resurrected the animated primetime comedy, not seen since The Flintstones had gone extinct 23 years earlier. Today, The Simpsons can claim much of the credit for Fox's animation domination -- from Family Guy to Bob's Burgers to its reimagining of Napoleon Dynamite. It's not only the chief creative linchpin for 20th Century Fox Television -- (Simpsons has won 27 primetime Emmys and 30 Annie awards) but also is the most lucrative property on television, with a billion-dollar merchandising empire.

Simpsons character Ralph Wiggum is to star in his own comic book later this month.

Bongo Comics announced the title as part of its quarterly series of 'One Shot Wonders', which will focus on various lesser-known residents of Springfield.

"At signings and conventions, interest in Ralph is always off the charts. I'm happily amazed by the wide swatch of people who claim him as their most beloved Simpsons character," said Bongo creative director Nathan Kane.

Creators including Sergio Aragonés, Mike Kazaleh, Carol Lay, James Lloyd, Jesse McCann, and Mary Trainor will work on the series of one-shots. Future titles will focus on Milhouse, Homer during his childhood, and Maggie Simpson.

Chicago’s famous Garrett Popcorn Shops are selling a limited-edition tin featuring the whole Simpsons clan to celebrate the show’s 500th episode, which will air Sunday on Fox. And really, what better way to celebrate the show that gave us Homer’s iconic “Mmmm...” than with a mouthful of Chicago Mix? Mmmm... Chicago Mix....

Matt Groening, whose crudely drawn cartoon strip for an alternative newspaper led to the creation of "The Simpsons," received the 2,461st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just 2 days ago (Feb. 14th).

This isn't the first time though that Groening has been present for a Walk of Fame Star unveiling. Back in 2000 The Simpsons show received its own star on the Walk of Fame. The Simpsons is also celebrating its landmark 500th episode this week (Feb. 19). The show holds the record for the longest-running comedy show, clocking in at 23 years to date.

This past week, Jeremy Scott showcased his new Fall/Winter 2012 Collection on the runway in New York. Of course the designer did not shy away from bold graphics, that much we know by now. Next to emoticons and Internet screens, The Simpsons were a central graphic theme in the new collection. Actually Bart Simpson was… appearing as all-over patterns on lots of knitwear for men and women in the new collection.

Scott, whose previous pop culture collections included those inspired by The Flinstones and Mickey Mouse, told The Hollywood Reporter he was dreaming of things he wanted to wear when he came up with the 8 Bart Simpson pieces. And Fox, who holds lock and key over all Simpsons merchandising, totally got his vision: "I wasn’t really sure how to go about this. I got someone on the phone and took it from there. And it was kismet, synergy, this was supposed to happen. They totally got it: the way I am, who I am. They seemed very aware of my work and were very enthusiastic."

To celebrate the 500th episode milestone which is coming up this month the Kidrobot company has come up with something very special. Introducing the very first "official" Matt Groening figure to honor the creator and father of the show.

Complete with goatee and glasses, director's jacket, and pad and pencil accessories, it is the first EVER Simpsons Matt Groening toy. This is the fourth 6inch figure that the company has released; previous ones include Ralph, Kang and Kudos and Lardlad. The Kidrobot company also has a line of Simpsons mini-figures available which feature over 20 characters in each series (currently 2 series available).

Season 14 of The Simpsons is out right now and features on the cover Kang and Kodos who invite you to add this Emmy Award winning season to your collection filled with your favorite guest stars (Mick Jagger, Lenny Kravitz, Tony Hawk, Blink 182, and more) and exclusive features that will satisfy your hunger.

In the 14th season DVD, there is commentary on every episode. Though only four episodes have Matt Groening, each episode has at least seven people commenting with one episode containing 12. Guests Joe Mantegna, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tony Hawk, Mark Hoppus, Scott Thompson and David Byrne join the regular writers, animators, directors and cast during the commentaries. In fact, there are noticeably more visits from the cast in these commentaries (no Harry Shearer or Julie Kavner, though).

No this isn't the rumored second Simpsons movie we're talking about but instead Larry Flynt Productions (Hustler) and Full Spread Entertainment (known for its XXX parodys) has taken are favorite TV family and showed what would happen if Homer made a "celebrity sex tape" with him and Marge. Of course you also have such characters as Moe, Barney and McBain involved in the film. I have to admit that the guy who does Homer's voice is pretty good and the preview (available after the jump) makes the movie seem pretty funny... don't worry the preview doesn't have any nudity.

This past Sunday night, Simpsons fans got more than they expected from the series' "couch gag" (what happens in the intro when Homer, Marge and the kids hit the sofa before the credits), as famed, enigmatic U.K. street artist/activist Banksy directed the scene and took it in a distinctly dark direction. The extended sequence took viewers to an Asian sweat shop, where children work in toxic waste, kittens are murdered to stuff little Bart and Lisa dolls, and a malnourished unicorn is enslaved to poke holes into Simpson DVDs.

The opening was originally available on YouTube when Fox decided that it should be pulled. Shortly after, when fans became upset at Fox's actions, the video was put back online. Abused pandas, dolphins, unicorns and children await. Watch at your own risk after the jump.

Every six months, Work Club, a London based ad agency, invites an up-and-coming artist to decorate its 22m long blackboard wall. This time illustrator Matt Williams, in the guise of Bart Simpson, wrote out every one of Bart's cholkboard gags from the series!

See the video below:

Site updates

I've redesigned the Ullman Shorts page to match our episode guide look and feel. We have better screenshots - well, as good as you can get from old, low quality video - as well as airdates and the correct titles (unlike a certain encyclopedia).

You can still download all the shorts as usual. At some point I hope to add a way to watch them online, YouTube-style.

I've been working on this for a little while now. You've probably seen the giant Simpsons cast poster that was created around Season 9. In fact, Fox are releasing a new version with more recent characters, though it's a pretty crappy attempt.

You may have tried to name all the characters, but come up short. Now help is at hand - I've identified every Simpsons character on this poster, from Homer, Bart and Mr. Burns right down to the generic jobsworths that appeared for 5 seconds in Season 1.

Our character map names every person on this poster!

The interactive page is split into 4 sections; once you zoom in just hover over a face to see that character's name (if they have one) and a short description of where/when they appeared, if appropriate.

Why not also check out the great site The Springfield Connection, who did make a great effort with a Christmas design. Also Last Exit to Springfield unveiled their Xmas section too, there are some great wallpapers there!

We finally got around to adding an RSS feed to the site! Now you can keep up-to-date with Simpsons news in your favourite feed reader, such as Google Reader, Live Bookmarks in the Firefox web browser, or another application/browser.

To subscribe, simply click the orange icon in your browser's address bar, or the icon just under the header.

A few weeks ago I updated the lists of Bart's chalkboard gags and couch gag variations. In addition to descriptions of the couch gags, the list also contains storyboards of the action - some of the more recent gags are extremely long!

Simpson Crazy now has its own Twitter feed! Twitter is a free social networking/micro-blogging service that allows you to post short messages to friends and followers.

Our feed is of course Simpsons-related and will contain snippets of breaking news that are either too short to post on the site, or we simply don't have time to make a full post. I've also been regularly posting Simpsons quotes that come into my head, so it's guaranteed fun all the way!

Notice anything different? It's been a long time coming, but finally we can today unveil a new-look Simpson Crazy!

The most noticable change is of course the new design, but there are bigger changes behind the scenes. I actually made the first version of this design about three years ago and have been slowly working on organising and reformatting content. We're using clean (and mostly valid) code across the site and the structure allows for quick and easy layouts for new pages, which should be coming faster. Practically every page has been redesigned in some way.

Previously we had about four different places for navigation links, which was a bit of overkill! The menu has now been consolidated into a simple list on the left of each page.

One of the other big changes is the news system, which I have rewritten from scratch. You'll see Simpsons show and product news on the left, with site updates and occasional web news in this right panel. Click any news item to see the full story; you can try it right now to see a bigger list of our site changes...